Through The Work
a talent development studio for healthcare leadership
If you want work to be better, however you define better, and whatever better means to you, it may be useful to know a few actions you can take right away this morning for making it so.
Take notes. Take notes better than you already do. It will help you remember. It will help you think. It will help you learn. It will help you stay organized.
Practice. Practice while you work. We already practice at work, implicitly and often haphazardly, because it's the only way to get better at anything.
The opportunity is in practicing deliberately. Choose a skill you want to improve. Find how you can improve at the skill. Do it. Then reflect: What worked? What didn't? What will you do differently the next time you practice?
Have a think. For example: block time on your calendar to do nothing but ... think. It will not feel like work. But it is. Important work.
The trick, as if it could even be considered a trick, is to bring your natural curiosity to your thinks. Having a think should always be an act of exploration.
Connect with people. In a network—and one way to view your organization is as a network—it's the communication happening between people where work is happening. It's how feedback occurs. It's how questions are answered. It's where new ideas come from.
That's what makes social networks (online and IRL), professional networks, search engines, media networks, and the water-cooler networks valuable, too. They're creating value by connecting people.
Take notes. Practice. Have a think. Connect with people.
If you're into models, you could consider Take Notes, Practice, Have a Think, and Connect with People a model for Better Work. But these actions are just as effective as stand alone actions. Use them linearly and in any order useful to you.
A skosh of intention at work, about work, is the on-ramp to improving your work, improving your organization, and making healthcare delivery better for everyone.
In other words: better work right away this morning.
Through The Work is a talent development studio for healthcare leadership embracing The Transforming—the always-happening, always-unfolding state of change in your job ... and using it to make more of the change you know should be happening, happen.
The Transforming is the most important professional opportunity of our careers—one that will lead to new job opportunities, real change, and a transformed industry for all of us and everyone else.
My name is Drew Weilage and I work in healthcare, too. At Through The Work, I assist people like you with the skills, attitudes, and points-of-view to propel your professional success. It's personal training for a transforming world of work.
Oh, and pep talks! Get a pep talk when you need one: big day, bad day, or any day at all. Text me at 646-450-2465 or send me a note.
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